Sunday, May 3, 2009

DNF

Yesterday I raced in my fourth Avia Wildflower Triathlon. The 27th edition of this race featured the largest pro start list the race has ever seen at 57 men. You can see a short summary video right now on Tri-Cal TV. They’ll post a longer video in the next few days.

The swim went reasonably well for me but I cut my foot on a sharp rock or piece of glass in T1. At the time I figured it was just a bruise and I continued onto the bike, trying to follow the plan that Matt had sketched out for me. Unfortunately my back got a bit sore again and I didn’t ride as strong as I would have liked. I need to spend more time on the TT bike and to also devote (even) more time to the right core strength work to get me comfortable again.

I noticed a good deal of soreness in my foot during the T2 run-in, so I took a quick look at my foot before putting on my bike shoes. I saw about a one-inch gash that was maybe half an inch deep, oozing a bit of blood. I was already rather far back in the race so I had the paramedics look at it before continuing onto the run. They recommended that I show my injury to the race doctor in the medical tent before proceeding and, well … he said that I needed stitches and shouldn’t run.

So my perfect record of eighty- or ninety-something triathlons without a DNF is over. I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. There is a bit of luck in racing, both good and bad.

At least the trip was still rather enjoyable. I got to catch up a bit with the Tri-Cal crew and I spent a lot of quality time with fellow racers Brad Zoller, Courtenay Brown and the Locktons. Brad was kind enough to drive me to the hospital, despite having to wait a very long time before we could leave the race site and therefore missing out on most of the post-race festivities.

The folks at Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, CA, were both friendly and helpful, although they did manage to inflict a good deal of pain upon my injured foot. Brad tells me that their efforts to dig out sand/etc. with a long single-ended Q-tip on a wooden stick were unsuccessful. So they broke the Q-tip in half and used the sharp/broken end of the stick to poke around instead. I gripped the table in white-knuckled agony and practiced my Lamaze breathing. They did inject me with a numbing agent after some digging … but I felt rather hardcore when Brad told me about the broken sticks. I’ll add a picture here once I can get it from Brad.

Thanks for your support, everybody, and I promise I will deliver some more positive race reports before the season is through!

Swim: 24:14 (23rd, first was Clayton Fettell of Australia at 22:17) Bike: 2:47:58 (55th, first was Bjorn Andersson at 2:17:08)